It has been six years since the release of ANTI, but pop icon Rihanna is finally back with her latest single; Lift Me Up.
Six years. That’s how long Rihanna, singer of some of the world’s most famous hits (Umbrella, Diamonds, Pon de Replay… do we even have to continue?), has been on hiatus for. It has been a productive time for the singer – six years in which the Barbados artist has been focusing her energy on her many business ventures, namely Fenty, Fenty Skin or her lingerie and loungewear line Savage X Fenty. Oh, and not to mention, she’s also become a mother.
The past 28 of October however, the wait for new Rihanna music was officially over, and her eager fans (as well as literally anyone that has ever sang Diamonds at the top of their lungs in the car) collectively sighed with relief. Hinted at through a cryptic instagram post featuring a silver R on a dark black background, Rihanna let her Navy (which, in case you didn’t know is how her fans call themselves) know that her latest single, Lift Me Up, was on its way.
Lift Me Up turned out to show a Rihanna quite different to what we have grown used to. Instead of a heavily engineered pop-icon, the single shows a more intimate Rihanna, one which sounds emotional and tender – and fans are loving it.
Her voice, singing melodically to a simple piano melody, has been received with open arms. It’s very different from her early career sound, something which Rihanna acknowledges herself in explaining how in the past, her music career used to be ever so structured. Now, she seems to be doing things on her own terms. In regards to sound, this seems to mean releasing a song with a strong focus on Rihanna’s own vocals. With a very simple instrumental backing to accompany it, Lift Me Up is a ballad that will accompany the upcoming movie release of Wakanda Forever.
In terms of the production, the already highly acclaimed song was written by a team of talented people, including y Rihanna, Coogler and Nigerian singer-songwriter Tems, as well as is produced and co-written by Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson, who scored the first Black Panther film as well as Creed, Venom and Tenet.
Let’s see what @badgirlriri gets up to next.